The total fish landing in this duty-free-island increased slightly by 0.93 per cent to 3.3 million tonnes worth of RM15.8 million last year (2022).

Labuan Malaysian Fisheries Development Board (LKIM) director Fadhilah Azib said the increase shows the productivity of fishermen coupled with the more permissible weather conditions throughout the year.

"We have recorded a slight increase in the fish landing last year driven by more fishing activities and good weather condition that allow fishermen to go to sea.

"We hope the momentum will continue this year, and LKIM will continue to support and look into the plight of fishermen," she said to Bernama today.

Fadhilah said the fish landings in Labuan are at Kiamsam fish landing complex and in other LKIM's jetties in several villages.

She said part of catches are for domestic demand with the remaining portion exported to Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in its engagement session with fishermen, deep sea entrepreneurs, deep sea fisheries industry players, frozen fish manufacturers and processors here in November 2021 has indicated the potential to grow the country's tuna catch.

It said the tuna fishing industry has great potential as a source of wealth for the country and could be developed in Sabah and Labuan, in line with the comprehensive transformation and development of the fisheries sector under the National Agrofood Policy 2.0.

However, for the industry to expand, both public and private sectors need to collaborate with investors and industry players to open bigger factories and operated more tuna vessels with the aim of making Labuan a Tuna Hub.

The Ministry reiterated the ecosystem for the industry is not just on catching fish but improvement in the overall value chain such as ports, transportation, storage, processing including introducing value-added products such as tuna steak, canned tuna, satay, serunding, tuna skin crackers and so on.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency